Bolivian Miners Ready to Liberate Four Americans, 15 Other Hostages

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Dec. 15--President Victor Paz Estenssore ordered his military chief today to fly to the tin mining center of Orure to pick up four Americans and 15 other hostages held by anti-government miners since Dec. 6.

The hostages had been held at a miners' union center in Catavi in retaliation for the government's arrest of two leftist union leaders.

Terms for the release of the prisoners were worked out by leftist vice-President Juan Lechin and Paz last night. Lechin agreed to order the release of the hostages if the government would release on bond the two union leaders and move their trial La Paz to Catavi.

There was a possibility of a hitch, however. A dispatch from Catavi said the miners were awaiting arrival in Catavi of Lechin, before turing over the hostages.

The dispatch said the agreement reached Saturday night between La Paz and Lechin had not been well received in some sectors in the catavi-Siglo Veinte mining area.

Latin Program Gets Boost

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15--President Johnson has apparently decided to upgrade the post of assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs in a move to boister the efficiency of American policy in Latin American countries. Johnson selected Thomas C. Mann, now ambassador to Mexico, to fill the post yesterday.

The President conferred with Mann today. Officials said that he told Mann he wants him to take the best parts of the good-neighbor policy laid down by the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Alliance for Progress launched by the late President kennedy, and use them as guidelines to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and disease from the Western Hemisphere.